So the market’s recovering, interest rates are low, and you think you’re finally ready to buy a home? Not so fast. Buyers across the country are running into a new roadblock: there don’t seem to be enough homes for sale.

Anyone who has looked at entry- to mid-level homes for sale in Our Pelican Bay Neighborhoods probably knows what I mean. Mortgage rates remain near historic lows, and as the prices of homes for sale continue to rise, fears that we could soon see a repetition of a real estate equity loss seem increasingly unlikely. 

Why the lack of inventory? There are several reasons. Buyers may be ready to buy again, but somesellers are still not in a position to offer their local homes for sale. When the housing market collapsed seven years ago, some homeowners’ equity loss was such that they remain unable to sell. Prices may be on the rise, but some need more time to return to pre-crash values.

Buyers always want to buy at the bottom, but sellers want to avoid selling there. Buyers are watching that bottom fade into the distance, but some sellers, pleased to watch their homes growing in value, are content to wait longer.

NAR says that there were just 1.93 million existing homes for sale on the national market in March, down nearly 17% from the prior year. In a well-balanced market, what had been a six month’s supply fell to just 4.7 months’ worth.  Nationally, homes for sale now stay on the market for just 62 days, down from a median of 91 days only last year. Glenn Kelman, CEO of an online national real estate brokerage, put it succinctly: "Somebody rang a bell and said the boom is back, and nobody wants to be late to the party."

Homeowners who have been thinking about selling are increasingly liking what they see in today’s market — including the prospects for trading up. Even those whose previous evaluations were unsatisfactory are finding it worth another look. If you would like to find out what your home is worth today, give me a call!

• Rebound appears in Realtors’ paychecks (Chicago Tribune) – The average income for realtors is on the rise.
• Why You Can’t Be Blase About the Next World’s Tallest Building (The Atlantic) – As the unveiling of “Sky City” nears, explore what’s next in the world of skyscrapers.
• New home sales climb in April (LA Times) – Positive signs from April indicate a real estate comeback.
• Murray St. (NY Post) - Bill Murray is leasing out his Manhattan Skyline penthouse, and he’s just dropped the rent.
• Zaha Hadid Wins European Museum of the Year Award for Riverside (Arch Daily) – Zaha Hadid takes home the prestigious award for his breathtaking museum design in Glasgow, Scotland.
• Bomb Shelter Boom Sees Underground Pools, Basketball Courts (ABC News) – In today’s world, fallout shelters are receiving makeovers that include luxury amenities.
• 15 Photographs of the Superstructures That Put Us in Space (Gizmodo) – Blast back to the past with eye-opening photos of NASA’s earliest incarnations.
• Tetris-Like Micro Hom Lands In Beijing Park (Architizer) – Chinese Studio Liu Lubin drops the blocks with this modular “Micro-House.”
• A Visual History of Michigan’s Outsize Influence on American Modernism (The Atlantic) - A look at the design geniuses who originated from The Great Lakes State.
• Buy Elvis Dumervil’s Colorado Palace (Busted Coverage) – The former Broncos pass rusher looks to part ways with his Colorado crib.
• Double-decker Florida treehouse may have to come down (Yahoo!) – Two-story offering takes treehouse concepts to the next level.
• Fannie and Freddie shareholders have new ally: Ralph Nader (Inman) – Mortgage lenders find an unexpected ally in consumer advocate Ralph Nader.
• Tower House (Gluck+) – A glass home among the trees.
• Bankrupt Mark Brunell Selling Ocean Beach House (Busted Coverage) - The former Jaguars legend sells his home after a string of failed business investments.

The post Saturday Morning Roundup: Bill Murray’s Penthouse, Bomb Shelter Boom and The Next ‘World’s Tallest Building’ appeared first on realtor.com® blog.

The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate loan climbed to 3.59% this week, up 0.08% from a week ago. Prior to last week’s climb to 3.51%, the 30-year fixed had remained below the 3.5% threshold for more than a month. However, the average is still well below the average rate from a year ago, 3.78%.

Likewise, the average rate on a 15-year fixed loan also jumped for the third week running, climbing to 2.77% from 2.69% a week ago. It is the second consecutive rise for the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage after hitting a historic low of 2.56% in early May. Despite the climb, the 15-year is still down significantly from the 3.04% rate it was at a year ago.

In contrast to the fixed-rate loans, hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages held steady for the most part. The average rate on a 5-year ARM rose ever-so-slightly, climbing from 2.62% to 2.63% week-over-week. The average rate on a 1-year ARM remained static at 2.55%.

“While [higher rates] may slow some of the refinance momentum, rates are nonetheless low and home-buyer affordability high, which should further aid home sales and construction in coming weeks,” commented Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist Frank E. Nothaft.

“For instance, in April, single family housing permits rose to the strongest pace since May 2008 while existing home sales for the same month grew the most since November 2009. Moreover, the National Association of Realtors reported that the median number of days on the market for these sales fell from 62 to 46 days, the fewest since it began collecting the data in May 2011.”

Buyer affordability was apparent in this morning’s New Home Sales date released for April, which showed a 2.3% increase in sales of newly constructed homes, according to mortgage expert Al Bowman: “This was a little larger increase than analysts were expecting to see, but not enough of a variance to cause much concern or excitement. The number of sales was much higher than forecasted however, a sizable upward revision to March’s sales means the monthly change wasn’t far off from expectations.”

Looking ahead, the upward trending of mortgage rates are expected to cool. In the latest Mortgage Rate Trend Index by Bankrate.com, 77% of the panelists believe mortgage rates will either fall or remain unchanged over the next week. “Following all the volatility we have seen in the last few weeks, look for rates to recover and improve slightly,” said FBC mortgage planner Jim Sahnger.

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1) Check the overall condition.
Some rental homes are in terrific shape: The renters have kept up with maintenance and have even made improvements such as fresh paint. In other cases, the rental hasn’t received much love. Because the home isn’t truly their own, some renters can be rough on a rental. Also, renters may not notice or report some of the maintenance issues that an owner would readily pick up on and address. A rented home may have additional wear and tear, especially if it has been used as a rental for many years and through multiple tenancies. Ask your insurance agent to check the history of past insurance claims on the property.

2) How’s the neighborhood?
Factor in the neighborhood: Are the surrounding homes mostly rentals? Is the neighborhood mostly single-family homes or a mix of multi-rental units along with other homes? Owner-occupied neighborhoods can be better protected against possible market-value fluctuations. Also look at the appearance of other homes on the street. Do they have well-tended yards? How does the condition of the home you are looking at compare? If the home you are interested in compares poorly with others in the area, that may help you strike a better deal.

3) Is it occupied?
If there are tenants, tour while they aren’t home. While a tenant can be a source of information about a home, they may not want to move and may try to prevent the sale by complaining about the property. Look for signs of obvious damage, holes in the walls, stained or ripped carpeting, damaged flooring, leaky faucets, and mold. Be sure to check  out all rooms and the basement, garage, or attic. You can tell a lot about how the home has been maintained by looking at how the tenants are living in the property.

4) Is it unoccupied?
If a home has been unoccupied for a while, find out for how long. Sometimes — although less common lately — these homes are listed at a reduced price. Unoccupied homes may have lacked attention and may need repairs or basic maintenance. If the home was unoccupied and the utilities have been turned off, that may prevent a prospective purchaser from doing a thorough home inspection. Depending on the area, sometimes utilities can be turned on temporarily, but it often requires putting the utilities in the prospective buyer’s name. Vacant homes can also have broken pipes, leaky roofs, mold or damage from pests, so a thorough inspection is vital.

“Check the HVAC and get a home warranty,” advises Julie Holden of Realty Austin in Austin, Texas. She mentions that in a rental, the air conditioning filter was probably not changed, and that is the worst thing for the system. She also advises clients to get new doors. “Rentals in Texas require a keyless deadbolt. There’s no need to have this remnant that marks your place as a rental.” In all cases, changing the locks is a good strategy.

Your home inspection will alert you to any repairs the home may need before you move in, and it can give you bargaining power if there are potential issues.

Moshe Pollock and Cina Coren contributed to this article.

The post Should You Buy a Home That Has Been a Rental? appeared first on realtor.com® blog.

Ah, spring is truly in the air…the traditional time when people can fall in love at first sight!

I’ll try not to dampen those springtime spirits too much, but for anyone currently looking into the local luxury home listings, some advice may be in order:

Online love at first sight is a really bad idea.

Those local luxury home listings can indeed be truly alluring, and using your computer (or iPad, or smartphone) to winnow through the current crop of terrific area luxury home listings is a supremely practical approach.

But do remember that any warm glow you experience after checking out a particularly fetching online tour is best held in check until after you have paid an in-person visit. Then the love affair is more likely to be the real thing.

Especially when it comes to the luxury home listings, they have been created by talented professional stagers and photographers (not to mention musicians, when a video is part of the presentation). We work with them to create an immersive online experience, which is all to the good.

The only drawback comes if we do such a good job that local luxury home prospects fall head over heels.  If reality can’t possibly match the romance of their mind’s eye abstraction, well…just ask a teenager’s parents about what the falling out of love experience is like! Until you have contacted me and we’ve made a real life, in-the-flesh house tour, what we are dealing with is — let’s face it — puppy love.

Seasoned buyers know that stunning photos can’t begin to reveal all the details that make for ‘the real thing.’ Does the kitchen fit a family’s cooking style? Is that gorgeous landscaping a good setting for kids and pets? Is the neighbourhood right for a particular family?

If your own home belongs among our eye-catching local luxury home listings, you probably also know that prospective buyers will be genuinely impressed when they visit in person. If that’s the case, I hope you’ll be contacting me soon for a complimentary consultation.

Reasons for Using Seller Financing

Seller financing is when the owner finances the purchase of the home for the buyer and essentially acts as the lender. It is most successful when the home is owned in full and the owner doesn’t need to immediately receive the money for the sale of the home. There are several scenarios in which the seller may want to work with the buyer. Perhaps the potential owners are a good risk but have a low credit score, or they don’t have the funds for a down payment. In other cases, the mortgage appraisal may come in low and preclude traditional funding. Often in these cases the seller will set up a time limit by which the loan must be paid.

The size and time period of the loan varies. The seller can finance the entire mortgage or, in the case of a low appraisal, lend the difference between the buyer’s approved mortgage and the price of the home. The buyer generally repays the owner through monthly mortgage payments that include interest. An owner-financed mortgage is usually not meant to replace a traditional mortgage for the entire length of the loan. This mortgage is generally repaid in full within a period of a few years, on the assumption that the buyer will be able to refinance the home with a traditional mortgage.

The Benefits and Risks of Seller Financing

Seller financing can benefit both the buyer and seller. For the seller it’s a way to widen the field of buyers and help a buyer close a deal. Seller financing could also be treated as an interest-earning investment. Because the seller determines the financing, they can offer a lower interest rate if they choose.

Both the buyer and seller need to do their homework before agreeing to this process. Because the seller is taking on the buyer as a lender, he or she should research the buyer as rigorously as any bank or mortgage lender would, including evaluating the potential buyer’s credit history and employment information. The seller must make sure the buyer will be able to pay the mortgage. The buyer also needs protections. They must make sure the home is legally owned by the owner and must know if the home is owned outright or if there is a mortgage or other liens on the home.

Because this is a legally binding transaction, it’s advisable to hire a lawyer familiar with this type of financing. The lawyer can negotiate and write the contract so that it is legally binding. The lawyer can make sure that the home is used as collateral for the loan so that the seller can foreclose if the buyer defaults on the mortgage payments. The amount of financial details involved in seller financing leads some sellers to hire a loan-servicing company to handle calculating an interest rate, figuring out an amortization period, and other details. Having professionals involved in the process will keep it formalized and provide adequate protections for both sides.

Dini Harris contributed to this post.

The post Is Offering Seller Financing a Good Strategy? appeared first on realtor.com® blog.

For most, a childhood home represents family, familiarity and a lot of firsts, like the place you made your first friend. It has the park where you learned to ride a bike. You can probably still remember the streets you took to school. Moving away from these familiar things could be particularly stressful for your child.

If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed — don’t!  In my 13 years as a Realtor, I’ve helped dozens of young families find their dream home and, as a result, have gotten a firsthand look at steps many parents have taken to calm their little ones’ nerves. With summer moving season fast approaching, I wanted to share what I’ve seen:

1. Communicate Your Move
Children may like surprise parties or a surprise trip to the zoo, but they will not enjoy a surprise move. After you decide to move, one of the first things you should do is call a family meeting, order your favorite takeout and break the news. Explain to your children why you are moving and how you feel about the move, and encourage them to express themselves.

2. Make Room Plans
Instead of just telling your children that they will be moving, ease their concerns by showing them pictures of their new room and the house. They might get excited to learn they no longer have to share a bedroom or get to pick the color of their next room. Children can be a lot more receptive to moving if they feel included in the process, and they will likely be especially receptive to making plans for their new bedroom.

3. Make a Map
Children like to visualize things, and you can help them picture their new surroundings by making a map of their new home. Use a traditional map or make an online map showing their new home. Be sure to circle points of interest like your child’s new school, parks and playgrounds, and fun places to visit. This is a great way to positively engage your children about the move and help them learn about their new neighborhood. Don’t forget to play tour guide and take your children around to visit all the places on the map once you arrive.

4. Research and Visit Schools
Starting at a new school, one with new teachers and unfamiliar faces, can be especially hard on children. Research the new school and its surroundings to help ease your children’s nerves.  You might even be able to arrange a visit to the school so that your children can meet teachers and their new classmates before they officially start.

5. Get Your Children Involved
Keeping your children involved in the moving process is important, because it establishes that your children are a big part of the family and that their voice is important. Make your children part of the moving process by letting them pack some of their own things. Have your children pick one or two toys and games to take on the airplane or car ride to the new home. This can also be a good time to have your children pick the toys and keepsakes they want to keep the most and donate the ones they no longer are interested in.

6. “See You Soon” Party
One of the toughest things about moving is saying good-bye to the friends and family you will leave behind. You want to make sure your children know that good-bye doesn’t mean forever, and their friends will still be their friends. Have friends and family over for a party for your child, but instead of making it a “Good-bye Party,” make it a “See You Soon Party.” Keep a book out so that friends and family can exchange email and phone numbers, and take lots of pictures. Helping your child maintain old relationships can help them as they adjust to their new surroundings.

The post Moving Tips to Help Your Child Through the Big Move appeared first on realtor.com® blog.

The seller generally pays the Realtor commission for both the buyer’s agent and their own agent. What happens if the buyer wants their fantastic agent to have a little more? Today’s question comes from Austin, TX

Q: I’m looking at buying a home and have an awesome Realtor.

I am in the process of deciding if I want a move-in ready home, or a foreclosure where I can fix it up and put in my touches in the process. If I go with a lower priced home, my Realtor doesn’t get as much of a commission. If I do go with this option, can I negotiate my Realtor fee to 4% so he gets comparable commission? I know it’s technically a 6% Realtor fee that gets split, so it may be that I ask for a 7% Realtor fee.

A: That is so gracious and thoughtful! However, sellers are extremely unlikely to agree to pay your agent more than his 3%.

In the case of foreclosures, banks will never — truly, never — pay more than 6%. As a matter of fact, banks routinely pay 5%, and the agents split it: 2.5% each.

Tell your agent how much you appreciate him, and be sure to refer him to all of your friends! Write a good review/testimonial of his work. Referrals are the lifeblood of our business — they’re the best “payment” there is!

–Julie Holden, Realty Austin

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1) De-Clutter the Closet
Everyone has certain items in their bedroom closets that simply don’t belong in there. It could be a couple of folded up comforters on the floor, garments you no longer wear or fit into, or non-clothing items like briefcases or a video camera bag. Take everything out of your closet and decide what should be stored elsewhere, donated or thrown away.

Sort through the remaining garments and separate them into his and her piles. You can also separate the piles even further into seasonal clothes and then store any non-seasonal items elsewhere. Keeping only seasonal clothing in the closet at any given time will greatly increase the amount of closet real estate you have to work with.

Once the closet is completely emptied out, clean it thoroughly so you have a nice clean slate to work with.

2) Visualize the Closet in His and Her Partitions
Look at your bedroom closet and assess the situation. In most cases, women are going to require more space than men simply because they have a larger range of garment types, so drawing an imaginary line down the exact middle of the closet will most likely not work. Men should be realistic about his-and-her closet requirements and not demand an equal 50-50 share of the space available.

3) Consolidate Ties and Belts
Nothing can make a closet look like a mess like a bunch of ties and belts all over the place. Gather up all of your ties and belts and use a belt and tie hanger to keep them organized and in one place.

4) Invest in Storage Options if Necessary
There are a ton of storage products available on the market and some of them can be quite expensive. Of course, on the other hand, some of them can be quite practical and useful too, so if your closet organization skills need some help, you can always incorporate storage options like shoe holders, baskets, shelf dividers or a complete closet organization kit to help you partition your closet into his and her sections.

5) Keep the Closet Tidy and Clean
The fastest way to ruin a well-organized closet is to become lazy once you have it separated and tidy. Don’t hang your clothes just anywhere in the closet; keep your items on your side of the fence. If you have a lot of button-down shirts or blouses, button the top few buttons to make sure they don’t drop off the hanger. If you store handbags in your bedroom closet, keep them buckled or snapped closed and place them in their respective cubbyholes or on the shelf when you are done using them.

If at all possible, try to keep the floor of your bedroom closet open and clean, especially if it’s a walk-in closet. If the closet floor becomes a collect-all, then your closet separation will quickly deteriorate because it will be become easier just to hang the clothing on the nearest rod rather than put the garment in its proper place.

6) Repeat Step 1 Every Few Months
A well-organized closet doesn’t just stay that way; it does require work and dedication, so don’t be surprised if after a few months you are noticing the lines starting to blur between your two sections. If this happens, don’t get mad; it’s just time to re-establish the boundaries and organize the closet again.

Dave Donovan contributed to this post.

The post His-and-Her Closet: Sharing is Caring appeared first on realtor.com® blog.

The landscape of “foreclosures” in online real estate search is unnecessarily confusing. Real estate websites use a vast array of terms to draw potential buyers in to their claws: Foreclosures, pre-foreclosures, auctions, bank-owned, REO, ORE, defaults, and sheriff’s sales, just to name a few. While these terms mean many different things, they’re often used to draw buyer traffic, but not necessarily educate the consumer about their meaning.

So, for that frustrated frog-kisser, here is a straightforward guide to what foreclosures really are, and where you can find one online that you might actually be able to buy:

Princes:  Bank-Owned Homes

The vast majority of home buyers searching for a foreclosure are actually looking for a bank-owned home. These properties are sometimes called REO (Real Estate Owned) or ORE, and they are homes that have already gone through the entire foreclosure process. They are now owned by a lender, and that lender wants to sell them.

These homes will usually, at some point, be listed by a broker on the local MLS. A buyer can get a mortgage to finance the home. Most of the regular home buying transaction applies to buying a bank-owned home. Buyer protections, including most seller disclosures and contingencies, are available to a buyer who wants to purchase a bank-owned home.

The best part: these homes are easy to find. Consumers don’t have to scour county records or subscribe to foreclosure-tracking services. They’re listed on sites like Realtor.com, and your local Realtor’s website, directly through the MLS.

As far as minimizing risk to the buyer, allowing for mortgage financing, confidence in the sales process, and ease of finding the foreclosure inventory, bank-owned homes are by far the preferred foreclosures of most consumers. There will still certainly be buyers competing for bank-owned homes, but they’re sold in a much more transparent playing field than other types of foreclosures.

In short, bank-owned homes on the MLS are princes–ready, qualified, and able.

Frogs:  Foreclosure Auctions

Buying a foreclosure at an auction is a strikingly different process. In most cases, all-cash purchases are necessary. This rules out a lot of buyers.

More importantly, there are much higher risks to the buyer in an auction, or sheriff’s sale, scenario. The title or lienholder may selling the home, but the home could still have other outstanding associated liens that the buyer may not be aware of. Buying a home at auction requires detailed research of a property’s title history to ensure there are no other outstanding debts that the buyer might automatically take on if he/she purchases the home.

Furthermore, homes sold at auction can often not be entered by the buyer until after the closing the transaction. Since the current owners retain property rights until the sale takes place, the tenants can not only forbid buyer tours, but also trash the home before leaving. Auction buyers often have to pay the former owners or tenants a “cash for keys” bribe to get them to move out of the home peacefully after the sale has concluded.

There are definitely some diamonds in the rough that can net a foreclosure auction buyer a princely profit. There are a whole lot of plain old frogs in the pond, too.

Pre-Foreclosures:  Phonies

 Imagine this scenario for a moment: A hospital administrator goes to a headhunter and says, “I need to hire a new doctor. Find me one.” The headhunter comes back to the administrator with 10 college freshmen and states, “These are all pre-PhDs. They’ll be doctors soon.”

This, in a nutshell, illustrates the validity of the term “pre-foreclosure.” The term encompasses a wide range of properties in a vast number of situations, and attempts to market them as homes for sale. They are useless to most consumers.

Pre-foreclosures are simply homes that, at some point, had owners who missed mortgage payments and received some sort of default letter from their lenders.  They very well may be:

• Homes that are now back on track, current with mortgage payments
• Properties with a loan modification in the works
• Houses that will be transferred to a family member
• Homes that will actually go through foreclosure–1 to 3 years from now

The reality of pre-foreclosures is that there are only a small fraction of them that will ever be available to the public who are viewing them online. These homes are not “for sale”, and most never will be foreclosure sales. Even the few that do go through the foreclosure process will often not be made available at auction until a couple of years down the road.  This is in no way useful to a home buyer who is trying to purchase a foreclosure now.

So, why would a website advertise these kinds of “pre-foreclosure” listings? Simply put, to sell subscriptions to foreclosure data companies, and more ad space to their partners. These listings generate traffic, generate home buyer leads, and drive revenue. The two things they don’t generate: foreclosure purchases and education for the buyers.

It’s cynical. It’s a disservice to consumers. Wasting hours searching through these phony listings only to find out they were never even for sale might make you feel like you kissed something far worse than a frog.

Trust The Sources That Align Their Goals With Yours

You want to buy a foreclosure. You want clear options, and you want them quickly. Focus your foreclosure search on a real estate site that displays the integrity to only list properties that are actually worth your time. Whether that is Realtor.com on the national level, or your local Realtor’s MLS-fed site in your city, you’ll find only bank-owned foreclosures that are available now.

Now that you understand how to discern the princes from the frogs and the phonies, go find your foreclosure and pucker up.

Sam DeBord is a Realtor® and Managing Broker at Coldwell Banker Danforth & Associates. Find him on SeattleHome.com.

The post Finding Foreclosures Online: The Truth About Princes, Frogs, and Phonies appeared first on realtor.com® blog.